Messianic Perspectives

Liz Aiello: Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinctive first-century Jewish point of view. I'm Liz Aiello. Today, our Bible teacher is Dr. Gary Hedrick, and his subject is Egypt and the Arab nations in prophecy.

With media attention focused on Israel and the people of the Gaza Strip, hope for a peaceful solution to the Middle East situation seems almost hopeless. Yet the ancient prophets told us thousands of years ago how everything will turn out.

Here on Messianic Perspectives, we usually focus on prophecy as it relates to Israel. But today, we'll be looking at the future of the Middle East from the viewpoint of the Arab nations because, believe it or not, Israel is not the only nation in the Middle East that God has a plan for. I'll be back a little later with information about a special offer, so have your pencil and paper ready. Now with today's study, here is Dr. Gary Hedrick.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: Thank you. And welcome listening friend to this edition of the program. It's good to have you with us today as we continue this series of studies dealing with Egypt and the Arab nations in prophecy. We've been talking about the fact that there are a lot of misconceptions people have about who the Arab people are. For example, some people think the Arabs are Muslims, but the truth is that not all Arabs are Muslims and not all Muslims are Arabs.

Indonesia is a good example of a non-Arab nation that's almost entirely Muslim. In fact, Indonesia has a higher percentage of Muslim population than Syria does. But the Indonesian people are Malays; they're not Arabs. Another good example is Iran. A lot of people think that since Iran is a Muslim nation, the Iranians are Arabs, but they're not. They're Persians. The official language of Iran is Persian or Farsi. Up until about 1935, Iran was called Persia.

It was the Arabs who drove the Persians out of most of the Middle East twelve or thirteen hundred years ago, so there's no love lost between the Iranians and the Arabs. And you'd think that if nothing else, their religion would bring them together, but they're not even from the same Muslim tradition. The Iranians are Shiites, and the Arabs, most of them, are Sunnis. The Shiites and the Sunnis have a longstanding dispute over the line of succession from Muhammad, so there is no love lost between the Iranians and the Arabs.

But the point is simply that most people don't know very much about the Arab nations, who they are or where they come from. So if you have your Bible handy, let's turn back to the book of Genesis and see if we can find out something about the origin of Egypt and the Arab nations. Genesis chapter 10, verse one: "Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And unto them were sons born after the flood."

Since Noah's flood destroyed all life on Earth, that means every nationality alive today traces its origin back to Shem, Ham, or Japheth, one of those three sons of Noah. No matter who we are or where we're from, we're either Shemites, Hamites, or Japhethites. We're descended from one of the three sons of Noah. Verse two: "The sons of Japheth: Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. And the sons of Gomer—" Gomer may be a reference to the Germanic peoples. "The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah."

Verse four: "And the sons of Javan—" Javan settled in Greece, so that's the Greek people. "The sons of Javan: Elishah, and Tarshish—" Tarshish is Spain. "Kittim—" That's Italy. "And Dodanim." Verse five: "By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations." So those are the Japhetic nations, the descendants of Japheth. When you trace their movements after the flood on a map, you see that they migrated north and west from Babylon.

What actually happened was that after the flood, everyone stayed pretty much together. God had told Noah and his sons to spread out and repopulate the Earth, and they disregarded those instructions. What they began to do was to develop a pagan civilization right there at Babel. That's when they started building the Tower of Babel, which was actually a ziggurat, a pagan temple. So God confused their languages. It was just the opposite of what happened on the day of Pentecost.

He confused their languages at Babel, and they spread out from there all over the Earth. From the information given here in Genesis, it appears that the sons of Japheth migrated from Babylon northward and westward toward Europe and Asia. So the Japhetic nations are the Eurasian nations, basically Europe and portions of Asia, Western Asia. The United States is a Japhetic nation since we came from Europe and since most of us are of European descent.

Beginning in verse six, we have the descendants of Ham. Hold on, because we're coming to the Egyptians here. Here it is, verse six: "And the sons of Ham: Cush—" That's the area south of Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia, that general area. "Cush, and Mizraim—" That's the Hebrew word for Egypt. There it is. "And Phut—" That's the Libyans. "And Canaan—" That's the Canaanites, of course. So that's where the Egyptians come from. They are Mizraim of Genesis chapter 10.

The sons of Cush: "Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabteka. And the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. And Cush begat Nimrod—" This is verse eight. "He began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Wherefore it was said, even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord." Verse 10: "And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar." Do you see what's happening here? The descendants of Ham moved southward into Africa.

By the time of Solomon, we see that a tremendously advanced civilization had developed in Northern Africa and Southern Arabia. The Queen of Sheba ruled over an African empire that formed an alliance with Israel. You read about that in the Old Testament. Those were the Hamitic nations, the descendants of Ham. Then the descendants of Shem, the other son of Noah, stayed basically in the Middle East. Assyria, Asia Minor, eastern Mesopotamia, Syria, and Canaan. Those are the Semitic people, the descendants of Shem.

Abraham was a descendant of Shem, so the Israelites themselves are a Semitic people. When you add it all up, here's what you get from this table of nations in Genesis chapter 10. 14 nations came from Japheth, 30 nations came from Ham, and 26 came from Shem. 14, 30, and 26. It adds up to 70. 70 nations. 70 is a multiple of 10 and 7. In the scriptures, both the number 10 and the number 7 signify completion or perfection.

Several years ago, some Jewish scientists in Israel did a computer analysis of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. They found interwoven throughout those five books all kinds of intricate mathematical patterns which they said pointed to the inescapable conclusion that the Bible was of divine origin because they said it would have been impossible for any human author or group of human authors to weave this intricate mathematical pattern into the very fabric of scripture.

Here in the book of Genesis is a perfect example. There are 70 nations coming from Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 70 is a multiple of 10 and 7. The number 10 is also the number of divisions in the book of Genesis. There are 10 names in the genealogies of chapters 5 and 11. The Hebrew text of Genesis 1:1 consists of exactly seven words. The Hebrew text of Genesis 1:2 consists of exactly 14 words, a multiple of seven.

There are seven days of creation, including the day of rest, and seven names in the genealogy of chapter four. In the flood account, there are many sevens. For example, Noah took seven of certain animals on the ark. It was seven days before God sent the waters on the earth. Near the end of the flood, Noah sent out a dove; it came back. He waited seven more days and sent it out again. So there's a pattern of sevens and 10s and multiples of seven and 10.

In Genesis 10, there are 70 nations descended from Shem, Ham, and Japheth. In chapter 12, there's a sevenfold promise to Abram. In chapter 41, there are seven years of abundance and then seven years of famine in Egypt. In chapter 46 of Genesis, there are 70 descendants of Jacob. Isn't that remarkable? Sevens and 10s and multiples of seven and 10. A mathematical pattern woven into the very fabric of scripture, pointing to its divine origin.

Those are the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, 70 nations. Every nation on earth today traces its origin back to one of those three sons of Noah. What about the Egyptians? Well, obviously, Egypt is in Northern Africa, and we said it was the descendants of Ham who moved southward into Africa. So let's go back and look at these verses in Genesis chapter 10, beginning in verse six. "And the sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan." There it is. Mizraim is the Hebrew word for Egypt. They are the Mizraim of Genesis chapter 10. We've got a lot more to say about this, and we haven't even gotten to the Arabs yet, but it'll have to wait until next time. See you then.

Liz Aiello: Thank you, Gary. And thank you, listening friend, for tuning in today. It's always good to have you with us as we look into God's word together. Gary Hedrick's subject today has been Egypt and the Arab Nations in Prophecy. Now, on a program like ours with Messianic emphasis, you might think it's rather odd to be talking about Egypt and the Arab nations. However, it's important to understand that God has a prophetic plan for the Arab people, just like he has a plan for Israel and the Jewish people.

He has not forgotten the sons of Ishmael, and the prophetic scriptures tell us that Arab believers will have a prominent place in the coming Millennial Kingdom. The title is Egypt and the Arab Nations in Prophecy. If you would like to have your own copy of this series, or perhaps you'd like to share it with a friend, you'll be glad to know that it's available on convenient compact disc. It's available for your gift of just six dollars or more to help us keep this program here on your station.

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And as always, when you're in touch with us, please mention the call letters of this station. If you're listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too. I'm Liz Aiello. Join us next time, won't you? As Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series of studies on Egypt and the Arab nations in prophecy right here on Messianic Perspectives. Messianic Perspectives is sponsored by CJF Ministries of San Antonio, Texas, and is made possible on this station by the freewill contributions of our listeners in this area.